Parents of kidnapped schoolgirls in Kebbi scream, “The government has abandoned us to our fate”

Some of the parents of the kidnapped students at the Federal Government College in Birnin Yauri, Kebbi State, complain that the government has abandoned their children and regrets that no effort has been taken to liberate them.

Niyanthara Daniel, one of the parents, claimed that the government did not contact them or provide them with any information regarding the issue, and that this made them more concerned since the kidnappers had cut off contact.

11 of the victims have not yet been freed by bandits since their abduction in June 2021.

Niyanthara stated in a BBC interview that she could sell the home to save her daughter.

I really don’t have much, she admitted, other from the family home we are currently residing in. We’ll do whatever it takes to get our house sold.

She continued by saying that they would ask their family and the neighborhood for assistance.

We waited for the government, but we never heard back. The governor has never phoned us to speak to us after our children were taken away in Kebbi State, so at least we can feel relieved, she claimed.

Another parent claimed that in contrast to how they used to communicate to their kids virtually often, the bandits had broken off contact with them.

She claimed that the robbers told them that they had prevented the pupils from contacting them until they were paid a ransom.

Salim Ka’oje, the parents’ leader, explained that the bandit commander had called him and warned them that “your children will be killed” if they didn’t give him what he wanted.

He continued by saying that the bandit leader had previously avoided them as parents.

Now that he had agreed to speak with us and had determined what needed to be done for him, the man added, “I feel that people who are talking with government on the subject must have given them our cries, but yet we didn’t hear from government.”